Posted by & filed under Military/Aircraft, Mountains & hills, July 15 2009.

Wellington remains near Ben Alder

Wellington remains near Ben Alder

Last week I cycled into the Ben Alder area via Dalwhinnie and Loch Ericht, camping overnight near Culra Bothy. The next day I walked up to the Bealach Dubh between Ben Alder and Geal-chàrn where there is some wreckage from a Vickers Wellington bomber that crashed in 1942. I first saw this wreckage on a long walk from Dalwhinnie to Fort William in 2000, and was the first time I’d seen wreckage from a crashed aircraft in the Scottish mountains.

From the Bealach Dubh  I walked up to the 1132m summit of Geal-chàrn and saw two more debris fields from this crashed aircraft. You can see some photographs of this wreck site on my website here.

The visibility was excellent and the views from the summit of Geal-chàrn were impressive, particularly towards Loch Ossian, Glencoe, the Mamores and Ben Nevis. I descended from Geal-chàrn down its steep east ridge, passing some impressively substantial long-lasting snowfields. You can see a photo I took of these here.

You can see other photographs I took on the trip on my website here.

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